The Intersection of Innovation and Contemporary Living

Daily Archives: June 10, 2008

There is some interesting data included in this post about a resurgence in advertising on top of RSS feeds. Historically this has been a disappointing category, most prominently featuring FeedBurner’s efforts to monetize the feed with embedded advertising. This is not to suggest that FeedBurner failed, but rather that it turned out not to be the slam dunk that many thought. It may be because ads are easily ignored, or even stripped out, in RSS feeds or that engagement rates are low, I really don’t know but monetizing RSS would be a big win for the media industry.

It had better be, because it’s certainly a larger part of publishers’ traffic. Thirty-four percent of global respondents to a March social media survey from Universal McCann said they had “ever” subscribed to an RSS feed. That represents a large jump from the previous year’s findings, when the agency found just 15 percent said they had subscribed to a feed. The data were gathered from 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries, aged 16 to 54.

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UPDATE: I forgot to include the link to the CRS report on the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax, here it is. Also, I was thinking a little more about this, what Obama is proposing is essentially a price control because for every $1 above a specific threshold he is saying there will be a proportional rebate back to consumers. This subsidation of oil prices is much in debate around the world right now with national oil companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Mexico, etc. unable to sustain the below market prices for gasoline and raising prices to much protest. In fact there has been armed protests in India and Malaysia in recent weeks because of this. That Obama would propose such a policy is in fact stunning considering that subsidized gas has in fact contributed to increased global demand for oil, while liberals consistently beat the higher taxes on consumers drum in order to dampen demand and drive up efficiency. This goes to a point I made a few weeks ago about the paradoxical positions on this, liberals say only high gas prices will drive down demand, but then the most liberal candidate for president wants to subsidize gas prices which will have the effect of increasing demand and he is complaining that oil companies are not doing their part to maintain fair prices (whatever they are) and at the same time obstructing every possible effort to use domestic oil and build nuclear power, the one clean energy source we know exists in enough quantity to make a difference. To add insult to injury, Obama rails against CEO pay while himself earning $4.2m last year for writing a book.

Windfall profits taxes are a stupid idea, make that insanely stupid idea, and not only do they fail to generate the promised revenue proponents say will be generated, but they do substantive long term economic damage. In many regards, the decline of U.S. oil company investment in exploration can be traced to the windfall profits taxes that America’s worst ex-president, Jimmy Carter, tacked on them with the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax of 1980, which according to the Congressional Research Office resulted in a 3-6% decline in domestic oil production and a 8-16% rise in foreign oil imports.

What’s to stop Congress from suggesting that Google makes too much and slapping a windfall profits tax on them to help offset broadband infrastructure development? Seriously, you can’t really buy into the notion that is providing societal good so why not tax them for the bulging profit margins they enjoy, which far exceed any oil company results.

Redistribution of wealth may offer a good populist soundbite but socialism has completely failed as an economic system throughout the world and I don’t see any compelling reason to suggest that we should be seriously considering adopting policies that destroy economies.

“I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,” the Illinois senator said.